The HDP 5th Ordinary Congress will be held, Sunday 3 July, at the Ankara Indoor Sports Hall, with the slogan “We are the solution, we have a promise!”. In this congress, the HDP ideas and its determination on the Third Way policy will come to the fore once again. The HDP is the target of systematic attacks, yet it continues to insist on its proposal and policy of “solution to Turkey’s fundamental problems”.
The following parties, institutions and circles will also attend the congress: constituent parties, HDK, DTK, 7-party democracy alliance of which HDP is a component. Other opposition parties like CHP, DEVA, Gelecek, Saadet, Tek Party, Left Party, TKP, Kurdistan Alliance representatives. Also, the other victims of regime’s politics such as; Saturday Mothers, Peace Mothers, Roboski, Sivas and Suruç massacres witnesses and the families of those killed in the massacres in Ankara, Konya, Gezi, Paris and the basements of Cizre; the Senyaşar family, families of Tahir Elçi, Medeni Yıldırım, Deniz Poyraz and Garibe Gezer, the families of imprisoned politicians; the representatives of more than 400 institutions, including intellectuals, writers, artists and personalities etc.
Prior to the Congress, the International Guests were invited for the with the following content of a letter “Under such extremely challenging political circumstances, we are preparing to hold a successful congress with the participation of tens of thousands of people in Turkey and hundreds of our friends, comrades, and allies from across the world. We would love our congress to be also a venue for an international day of solidarity with the HDP and the democratic opposition, which will be a striking response to the government’s pressures on us, particularly the closure case against our party.”
Accordingly, more than 100 invited international guests, including many representatives of political parties, politicians and activists from Europe and the Middle East, will attend the congress.
Approximately 50 thousand people will attend the congress, where 1050 official delegates will vote. Congress participants will travel to Ankara from the different provinces.
The congress will elect 100 permanent members, 50 alternate and 30 honorary Party Assembly member lists and co-chairs.
The Central Disciplinary Committee and the Conciliation Board will also be renewed. In addition, a large Advisory Board that will include writers, intellectuals, artists and politicians from different circles will be formed and submitted to the approval of the Congress.
Background:
We are holding this congress one year before the expected date of the presidential and parliamentary elections, and at a time when the HDP is facing a court case for its closure and countless other cases to criminalize our party. Since the June 2015 elections, the HDP has been under intense attacks from the government. Erdogan and his ultranationalist allies have used all kinds of repressive means to destroy the democratic opposition, and particularly the HDP. Since 2016, over 15,000 people affiliated with the HDP, including its former co-chairs, parliamentarians, co-mayors, party administrators, and other members, have been arrested. As if these attacks were not enough, the HDP is now facing a closure case, as the governing alliance wants to eliminate it from politics before the next elections. In addition to asking for the closure of the party, the prosecution also demands a political ban for 451 HDP politicians, and the confiscation of the party’s assets. We expect this case to be concluded in the autumn, and so this may be our fifth and last ordinary congress.
Despite all these unlawful governmental pressures and attacks, the HDP remains as a powerful political actor shaping Turkish and Kurdish politics in profound ways. It has shown its kingmaker role in Turkey’s politics in the March 2019 local elections, when our support to opposition candidates defeated Erdogan and his allies in Istanbul, Ankara and in many other municipalities in Western Turkey. The fear of Erdogan and his allies is that the HDP may play a similar kingmaker role in the next presidential e lections, hence their pressures to totally destroy the HDP before the elections.